Book meme stolen from mcnutcase

[nolawitch58]

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't search around and look for the "coolest" book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.
6. Get people to guess the book, if they want to. No googling!

Even though they were always so beastly to him and wouldn't let him do all the things the other boys did.
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

I don't really understand the desperate need for conformity in society. Conformity is the overwhelming message in both the above book and 1984 by George Orwell. Being different is punishable to varying degrees of severity, but why? My theory is that people are so miserable that they can't stand when anyone who has made different choices in life is happier than they are. Therefore, they have to insist that others conform to their brand misery or suffer. By forcing others to conform, they are validating their own choices. Why can't they be content to follow their own paths, which may or may not be right for them, and leave others to their own paths?

Comments

[solitary4now.livejournal.com]

One may say, broadly speaking, that Protestants like to be good and have invented theology in order to keep themselves so. whereas catholics like to be bad and have invented theology in order to keep their neighbors good.

[ex-whitepho.livejournal.com]

Ha! I knew the book instantly. I rule.

That is one of my favourite books ever.

[nolawitch.livejournal.com]

I'm rereading it after glomming the paperback from a friend at the geek Crawfish Boil lask weekend. I'm also going to reread 1984 and Animal Farm. It's been over twenty years since I read each of them and it's time to revisit some of the concepts to better understand what's happening in this pissant country of ours and help correct the course politically.

Have you ever read

[tigrismus.livejournal.com]

"We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin? Great and often overlooked dystopian novel, and a big influence on Orwell. Listen to Shostakovich while reading for a thoroughly bleak experience.

need for conformity:

[saminz.livejournal.com]

In children, the "need for conformity" is a phase, when they start looking for other models besides their parents. They want to fit in with their "peer-group", comparing their peer's development to their own. It's of course meant to pass during puberty :-).
The need for conformity from the top down is more of a problem - see Animal Farm. Some are of course always "more equal", but having the masses "conformed" helps controlling them enormously ;-).
I have reread "1984" a few years ago and thought it quite marvelous. I don't think I estimated the long theoretical part as a teenager at all...

Re: need for conformity:

[nolawitch.livejournal.com]

In Brave New World, the conformity comes from keeping the populace infantilized. The problem of bottom-up conformity is that some members of a group wish to remain at the infantile state by having Big Brother or God hand down hard and fast rules instead of working through the ramifications of their choices themselves. Since they are unable or unwilling to deal with life on an adult level, they want their choices to pertain to everyone so they don't have to justify them to other adults. I would have respect for their choices if they simply admitted that they made those choices themselves and weren't constrained by what they think their god wants or what their society expects of them.

They are on their well-trodden path with the throngs of others daring not to step off it and find their own ways. If that makes them happy (and I suspect it really doesn't so much as make them comfortable in knowing what to expect next), that's fine; when they try to get everyone else to walk that path, I have a problem with it. My path has taken me through the weeds and up trees and sloshing through streams. I am not content with the pavement of conformity.

Re: need for conformity:

[saminz.livejournal.com]

You are of course right. I was referring to "normal" kids :-). What you describe is growing up in a repressive system, which can be orchestrated politically, as in the book, or on a smaller scale, in a sect, or chapter of fundie religion. That cripples a lot people for life, to be sure...
Trotting these paths with other "sheep" might actually feel comfortable to some, but certainly not to the more original/creative/intelligent. Not for a lifetime. Not without designer drugs :-)! It is essential for most of us to at least have a choice, even if only a small percentage will actually be adventurers...

Re: need for conformity:

[solitary4now.livejournal.com]

its scary to think we seem to be at that point in history right now...

Re: need for conformity:

[nolawitch.livejournal.com]

That's why we need to get together and form coalitions to fight the rising tide of conformity. If we don't, we risk foundering in a sea of hatred and intolerance.